By Pete Bosen

I AM A LONG TERM SANTA MONICA resident, and can remember the days before Costa-Hawkins well. There is talk of having a ballot initiative to repeal Costa Hawkins - which would return vacancy control to Santa Monica, and so cap the price of rents to new renters, often at very low levels - and over time inflation will send those capped rents lower and lower.

 (All of what follows is not about the usual rent control, but about the extreme form of rent control called “vacancy control.”) 

It is well known that capping the price of goods below market price always leads to inefficient use of those goods and the collapse of supply. Just look at the gas crisis of the 1970’s; where price caps turned a minor price adjustment into a disastrous loss of supply: (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/200 6/may/15/20060515-122820-6110r/) . 

Apartments are no different...

Read More on page 3: http://backissues.smdp.com/112517.pdf

By Steve Lopez

Today, home ownership in California is the best investment any of us will ever make, thanks, in large part, to a scarcity of housing. The pace of construction has not kept up with population grown and demand, so those of us with houses own a staggering amount of equity wealth that grows even as those without homes pay a higher price for survival.

Read More: http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-equity-wealth-20171126-story.html

Name of product:

Kidde fire extinguishers with plastic handles

Hazard:

The fire extinguishers can become clogged or require excessive force to discharge and can fail to activate during a fire emergency. In addition, the nozzle can detach with enough force to pose an impact hazard.

Remedy: Replace

Recall date: November 2, 2017

Recall number: 18-022

Find Models and Dates at: https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2017/kidde-recalls-fire-extinguishers-with-plastic-handles-due-to-failure-to-discharge-and#

Los Angeles' insane rents might finally be coming down. After a glut of new apartments downtown sparked a cooling of rent increases, there's new evidence suggesting that the sharp rise in lease rates across the county could be leveling off.

A new report from real estate technology and analytics firm RealPagefound that the average rent in Los Angeles County actually decreased by $19 from September to October.

Read More: http://www.laweekly.com/news/los-angeles-sky-high-rents-actually-dipped-in-fall-8868398

2900 Block of Delaware Rallies Neighbors to fight City Hall to Prevent a Pre-school

2953 Delaware LLC has purchased it's namesake property in order to launch a 50 kid preschool, according to an application approved by the Santa Monica Planning Commission. The appeal to the Santa Monica City Council will be heard the evening of December 5th, 2017 at SM City Hall.

A group of neighbors has formed to oppose the application. On its website, http://www.preservegandara.org, the group notes that there are at least 46 preschools within a 2 mile radius of proposed project on 2953 Delaware in Santa Monica and at least 20 day care centers within 1 mile of the proposed project.

by Charles Andrews

WHY THIS FIGHT? Over district vs at-large elections? Is it an obscure bit of political infighting, a clash of personalities, that doesn’t really mean anything to residents? Or could it possibly change the way our City is run? Take much of the big money influence out of our elections? Give minorities, and neighborhoods, a voice? End the 40- year one-party dominance of SMRR that has given us a steady stream of Council members hell bent on developing Santa Monica into a high-rise megalopolis-by-the-sea, with all the resultant problems of traffic, crime, corruption, skyrocketing rents and more, that trying to cram way too many people and big buildings into 8.4 square miles inevitably brings.

Read More on page 4: http://backissues.smdp.com/112217.pdf

by Michael Louis

From a speech delivered Thursday evening Nov. 16, 2017, to Santa Monica Housing Commission.

Santa Monica (aka SMRR) politicians ‘invested’ over $5 million of our tax money in the building OPCC uses on Cloverfield just north of the 10 freeway and charges them a whopping $1 per year for rent.

Read the article: http://www.smobserved.com/story/2017/11/20/opinion/ocean-park-community-center-opcc-accused-of-human-rights-violations/3202.html

by Gary Rhoades

INFORMATION-RELATED PRIVACY When a landlord collects information on applicants’ credit, it is subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and can’t be used for any other purpose.When a landlord is no longer using the private data, the FCRA requires that it be disposed of under Federal Trade Commission rules.

Read More on page 4: http://backissues.smdp.com/111517.pdf

Speculators are seizing on Santa Monica’s booming real estate market and cashing in by evicting long term tenants to rake in profits, according to a new report on Ellis Act evictions from rent-controlled apartments commissioned by the City Council.

The report said multi-family buildings are often replaced by single-family homes or condos with fewer units, hurting the city’s overall housing stock.
“It is clear that speculation is playing a role in the Ellis Act withdrawals occurring in Santa Monica,” reads the Nov. 2 report from Keyser Marston Associates.

“Nearly 30% of Ellis Act withdrawals are filed by applicants that have owned the property for less than six months. Other major rent control cities in California have experienced the same phenomenon.”
There were 23 Ellis Act withdrawal notices filed in 2016, affecting 90 units, according to the RCB’s annual report. Nearly half of those units were either already vacant or owner occupied by the time the notice was filed.

Read More: http://smdp.com/report-claims-ellis-act-threatens-small-rent-controlled-buildings-when-property-values-soar/163267

It would be appropriate to write about crime and death in today’s SMart column – about the stabbing on 4th and Santa Monica Boulevard in broad daylight last Friday, the tragic shooting death of a 28-year-old mother of a 2-year-old child early Saturday morning, a beating on the Promenade that night, and the sad Expo train fatality on Monday morning. The rise in criminal activity over the past two years has become ubiquitous in our town. However, the increases in crime, as well as the increases in traffic incidents, are mere symptoms of a more significant problem in our city.

Many residents feel that City Hall is not paying enough attention to the double-digit increases in crime and stifling traffic in our city. In fact, much of the uproar is due to the persistent feeling that our city council can easily ignore residents. We can trace a significant part of that problem to the election of November 5, 1946, when voters approved a new City Charter, which decreed that each city council member would be chosen by a vote of the entire city. 

Read More: https://smmirror.com/2017/11/sma-r-t-divide-conquer/